Ray Peavy

Two 18-year-old men were killed in a drive-by shooting Monday when they stopped their gray Cadillac at a traffic light in Altadena, police said. The two victims, whose names were not released pending notification of relatives, were shot by at least one of three occupants of a green Cadillac that pulled alongside them about 3 p.m. at Lake Avenue and New York Drive, Sheriff's Lt. Ray Peavy said.

Although Los Angeles County Sheriff's Capt. Ray Peavy retired Friday after nearly 40 years with the department, he didn't plan to stay away for long. Peavy is working with Hollywood producers and is pitching a reality television show that would highlight detectives assigned to the sheriff's homicide bureau, at which he spent much of his career. "L.A. Homicide" will document Peavy and other retired detectives as they examine old unsolved homicides and current detectives working unsolved cases.

Sheriff's deputies shot and wounded a roofer whom they mistook for a gunman during a chaotic shooting Wednesday near Carson that left the alleged gunman dead, a sheriff's spokesman said. The roofer was shot in the arm as he and another worker spread tar on the roof of the Melody Liquor Store near Normandie Avenue and Torrance Boulevard. Moments earlier, deputies had shot and killed a man who confronted them in the street with an assault rifle. The incident occurred about 9:20 a.m.

Sheriff's deputies shot and wounded a roofer whom they mistook for a gunman during a chaotic shooting Wednesday near Carson that left the alleged gunman dead, a sheriff's spokesman said. The roofer was shot in the arm as he and another worker spread tar on the roof of the Melody Liquor Store near Normandie Avenue and Torrance Boulevard. Moments earlier, deputies had shot and killed a man who confronted them in the street with an assault rifle. The incident occurred about 9:20 a.m.

Investigators served a search warrant Monday night on the Lakewood home of Bruce Koklich, who faces a second trial next month on charges that he murdered his wife, the daughter of the late state Sen. Paul Carpenter. Koklich, 44, who is free on $1-million bail, allowed sheriff's homicide and crime-scene investigators inside the home on Fairway Drive, Lt. Ray Peavy said. They planned to look for potential evidence in the case, Peavy said, but he did not specify what.

Although Los Angeles County Sheriff's Capt. Ray Peavy retired Friday after nearly 40 years with the department, he didn't plan to stay away for long. Peavy is working with Hollywood producers and is pitching a reality television show that would highlight detectives assigned to the sheriff's homicide bureau, at which he spent much of his career. "L.A. Homicide" will document Peavy and other retired detectives as they examine old unsolved homicides and current detectives working unsolved cases.

January 17, 1997 | NICHOLAS RICCARDI and MAYRAV SAAR, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Casting doubt upon a Houston man's story that his co-worker fell to her death from a City of Industry hotel balcony while the two were having sex, Los Angeles County coroner's officials Thursday ruled the woman's death a homicide. Sandra Orellana, 27, was "assisted" in toppling over the balcony railing outside her room at the Industry Hills Sheraton in November and plunging 11 stories to her death, coroner's spokesman Scott Carrier said. Thursday's was just the latest twist in the macabre case.

Sheriff's deputies shot a 17-year-old suspected car thief in the buttocks when he reached for a cellphone that officers thought was a weapon, authorities said Friday. Shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday, deputies tried to stop a reckless driver, who then led them on a chase. The car crashed in a parking lot on Willowbrook Avenue, and three males ran from it. Two deputies fired several rounds when one suspect pulled the object from his waistband, Lt. Ray Peavy said.

A County Jail inmate suspected of killing a Los Angeles police officer died just before 10 p.m. Wednesday after hanging himself in his cell the day before, authorities said. Kenrick Johnson was alone in his cell in a high-security area of the Twin Towers jail when he hanged himself from bedsheets tied to the bars, said Sheriff's Homicide Capt. Ray Peavy. He was hospitalized and died 23 hours later. Johnson is the suspect in last Friday's shooting of Officer Ricardo Lizarraga.

Police responding Wednesday to a call about a partially burned car behind a building found a dead woman in the trunk, officials said. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which investigates homicides in the city, has taken over the case, Sheriff's Deputy Steve Sciacca said. Sciacca said the woman was not burned. "Homicide detectives believe there is a strong possibility that the partially clothed victim was sexually assaulted," said sheriff's Lt. Ray Peavy.

Two 18-year-old men were killed in a drive-by shooting Monday when they stopped their gray Cadillac at a traffic light in Altadena, police said. The two victims, whose names were not released pending notification of relatives, were shot by at least one of three occupants of a green Cadillac that pulled alongside them about 3 p.m. at Lake Avenue and New York Drive, Sheriff's Lt. Ray Peavy said.

Sheriff's deputies returned to an isolated oil field Thursday to search for the body of a woman reported missing more than 13 months ago by her husband, who has since been charged with her murder. But after spending nine hours combing the oil field, officials ended the search without finding the body of Lakewood resident Jana Carpenter-Koklich, the 41-year-old daughter of the late state Sen. Paul Carpenter. She was reported missing April 20, 2001.

Two bodies found over the weekend had been taped up, bound in plastic trash bags and strangled, homicide investigators said Tuesday. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department investigators have identified one of the victims, but withheld the name until relatives were notified, said Lt. Ray Peavy, one of three detectives investigating the double slaying. The body of the second victim has not been identified, he said.